Critic Reviews

In the end, Alien Storm ends up being a little less forgettable than you might have guessed. It's Golden Axe with robots, yes, but it also mixes things up a bit with its inclusion of the occasional first-person shooting stage and the run-and-gun, forced-scrolling levels. If you're a fan of that old-school SEGA style, featured so prominently in more readily remembered titles like Altered Beast, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage, Alien Storm could serve you well. But if you're only a casual fan of those comparison titles just listed, you're certainly safe to save your Wii Points and pass on a download of this one.

The ultimate question, then, is whether the game can be recommended as a VC purchase. The answer is somewhat ambivalent; simply put, the Final Fight and Streets of Rage games have held up infinitely better than Alien Storm, and as such must rank higher in purchasing priority. But this game has its own charm, somewhat limited as it is, and there are undoubtedly those who, having played and appreciated the aforementioned games, will derive copious enjoyment from this as well. Alien Storm is, in the end, the Die Hard of beat-em-ups: not cerebral, but catering to its own niche because of that very fact.

It is, quite frankly, a bland, flavourless slog. Amusement comes only from goofy animations - such as the robot character, Scooter, and his self-destruct smart bomb move - but that's no reason to waste 800 points. If horizontal button-mashing is your thing, stick with Streets of Rage. Or Golden Axe. Or Final Fight. Or Probotector. Or...